Boys soccer: Ottawa edges L-P in sudden death penalty kicks

It doesn’t matter the sport when it comes to Ottawa and La Salle-Peru playing it’s always exciting and entertaining.

Wednesday’s Interstate 8 Conference boys soccer match between the rivals was no exception as the Pirates got a penalty kick late in regulation before Rey Garcia gave Ottawa a 2-1 victory with a successful shot in sudden death penalty kicks.

“We practice penalty kicks a lot so we were very confident going into the shootout,” Ottawa coach Kevin Olesen said. “So when Rey Garcia got the opportunity to go up and take a shot we felt good about him putting one in the back of the net.”

L-P held a slim 1-0 lead late in regulation, but with 1:09 left, the Cavs were whistled for a foul giving, Jorge Lopez a penalty kick, which converted to tie the contest at 1-1 and send it into a shootout.

Gonzalez shot first for the Cavs and his shot hit the crossbar. Ottawa’s Michael Bedolla did not miss and gave Ottawa a 1-0 edge.

The Pirates held a 2-1 lead as Collin Lyons made his attempt, but L-P got two big shots from Alexander Rax and Jason Curran to pull ahead with one Pirate shooter remaining in Evan Snook, who nailed the shot and sent the match to sudden death kicks.

Ismael Mejia started things off for the Cavs and was denied, which brought up Garcia, who hit the back of the net, giving the Pirates the 2-1 victory.

“We started out strong controlling the ball,” L-P coach David Spudic said. “That’s our style of play and the shootout was exciting. Both teams had good looks and unfortunately we came up a little short.”

At the start of the game, L-P came out and dominated the ball control and just over three minutes into the game, Adrian Gonzalez centered the ball and blasted a shot past Connor Diedrich to put the Cavs ahead 1-0.

“You know (Adrian Gonzalez) is very good with the ball,” Spudic said. “So whenever he gets the opportunity he knows to move up field, holding midfielders and creating space.”

L-P looked like it was going to add some goals as Ottawa’s Jordan Arroyo was hit with a yellow card, giving Mejia a penalty kick, but Diederich made a great save to keep the game a one-goal affair.

“Connor is a first-year starter,” Olesen said. “He has done a nice job and tonight he made some saves that kept us in it because L-P came out strong like we knew they would, so we needed him to make plays and that’s exactly what he did.”

Adan Pantoja dribbled the ball up the field and nearly put L-P ahead two goals, but another nice save by Diederich kept it 1-0 L-P heading into the intermission.

The two teams continued to create scoring chances in the second half as Ottawa had a couple solid corner kicks that were denied by Cavs goalie Abraham Garcia.

Lopez looked like he was going to get a breakaway for the Pirates, but the Cavs defense quickly recovered to remain ahead.

Before the end of regulation, the Pirates had two more scoring chances as Payton Arroyo and Lopez were denied once again by Garcia until Lopez sent the game into a shootout and sudden death where Ottawa came away with the 2-1 victory.